Kelkoo.com names new group MD and aims to boost growth

Kelkoo.com has appointed Jean-Fabrice Mathieu as group managing director.

It follows Pierre Chappaz, chief executive officer of Kelkoo.com, and Dominique Vidal, Kelkoo group managing director, taking the lead of Yahoo!'s consumer operations (see p12).

"My role will be to maximise growth opportunities and keep improving offerings for users," he said. "I want to build a one-stop shopping destination to give a more holistic experience."

Planned additions include a 'user review' section, merchant ratings and a digital download shopping service. "We are keen to implement this and the UK will be the first of the sites where we do it," he said.

Referring to Froogle's launch in the UK, he commented: "We are quite paranoid of innovation and we are well aware about what is going on in the competitive world. Froogle launched in the US and hasn't had much impact on our US colleagues.

"The opportunity for growth is amazing. Anything that increases awareness that these sites exist, such as the launch of Froogle, is good for us."

Mathieu, who moves from his role as senior vice-president of marketing and business development at the firm, will still report to Chappaz and Vidal. Previously, he spent 10 years at L'Oreal in sales, marketing and general management.

The news comes as Kelkoo, purchased by Yahoo! for some £320m in March, revealed this month that it had trebled third-quarter profits to $253m.

Terry Semel, Yahoo! chairman, said: "Our engaged audience enables us to deliver an unmatched set of ad opportunities, providing deeper value to our marketers."